This Army aeroplane, on a flight from Aldershot to Montrose, came casually down in a field at Many-wells Heights near Den-holme in October 1913, having run short of petrol.
Its pilot was Captain Maclean of the 1st Scots; the machine was a tractor biplane with a 75 horse-power engine.
Petrol was obligingly rushed up by car from Keighley, but the weather deteriorated meanwhile and Maclean decided to stay overnight.
By first light next morning, hundreds of sightseers were converging on the scene, some of whom managed to scrawl their signatures on the wings and body of the seeming phenomenon.
As the sky remained clouded, Maclean delayed his take-off again.
A War Office regulation of the period forbade Army planes from flying on Sundays, so the pilot wined and dined in the neighbourhood while his machine spent the weekend roped off in a corner, its propeller blades swathed in linen bags. The farmer owning the field made a tidy sum by charging admission.
At last, on October 13, 1913, before an admiring crowd, Captain Maclean bounced up and away over Harden and Bingley to resume his flight.
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